We have just over three weeks left in 2021, and I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling it! This season can be hectic, and sometimes it's complicated... We need yoga more than ever, but it can seem like time is in short supply.
You don’t have to abandon your practice when things get busy. In fact, you might find that the tools of yoga make everything else you have to do easier. Do I have a perfect system? No. Do I keep up with my practice anyway? You better believe it.
Let’s do this thing together. Let’s be well. Here are my tips and tricks.
1. Make it a priority
Regardless of your role, you probably have a schedule or routine. The dog tells me she wants to go out at 3:30 AM, and I just take her. It’s non-negotiable. My boss tells me I'm scheduled for certain hours, and I show up. If you’re trying to stick with it, the practice has to become non-negotiable in that same way.
Putting yoga on the calendar helps. Some students register for all their yoga classes for the week in one go, and it goes a long way toward them having a consistent practice. When the day of class rolls around, they're already committed.
This holds true for all aspects of the practice, too. If you know you want to meditate for 15 minutes every morning, make sure you’ve blocked the time. The time gremlins will eat that quarter hour if you do not give it a place on the schedule.
2. Be okay with switching it up
I value consistency in my practice. I don’t have to guess what’s going to happen on Thursdays at 9 AM because I know that I’m going to Brent’s class. At this time of year, though, stuff gets weird. Sometimes my job requires me to be at my desk on Thursdays at 9 AM. There’s nothing I can do about it.
When this happens, it can be tempting to toss yoga time for that day, but I think it’s better to look ahead and add yoga to your schedule in a different place. If I can’t do Thursday morning, I might schedule a class later in the week instead. This brings me to my next point…
3. Practice outside of class
Practicing in real-time with your teachers and fellow students is a way to experience a lot of growth. Of course, we want to see you in class. We're realists over there, though.
You can practice anytime and anywhere. (I’d still recommend penciling it in on your personal calendar because… time gremlins.)
4. Make it ordinary
I’m going to let you in on a secret: I do a lot of yoga by myself, and I don’t practice 60-75 minutes of asana every day. Arrest me now, yoga police.
If you want to make yoga practice sustainable, there has to be a shift from yoga as a special occasion to yoga as ordinary.
I start my yoga with small acts of care. ( I talked about this when we discussed gratitude.) When I make coffee for my spouse, I pour my compassion into the machine. I say, “May this make you feel loved and appreciated for the sacrifices you will make at work today. May it keep you warm and wake you up. I appreciate every day with you.” Then I turn to the dog and cat, and I say, “May you realize that you are not starving, even though I know you have not eaten since 5 PM yesterday. May you feel loved and appreciated. I appreciate every day with you.”
Depending on the schedule I've determined, I'll roll out my mat for 15-20 minutes and do some Freedom Pose and Sun Salutations, or I'll grab my meditation cushion and find stillness. Sometimes all that happens back to back, and sometimes I'll focus on one or the other. No matter what, that stuff is happening at some predetermined point in my day.
Sure, longer durations would be better. You'll get more from the practice the more you commit to it. There are no shortcuts here. That being said, don't let your attachment to what you think the practice should look like keep you from your practice. As one of my friends in the education world says, "Nobody likes to be should on." A 10-minute practice is going to beat skipping practice every time.
To give making yoga ordinary a try, attach it to one thing you do every day. It might be preparing a meal or wiping a counter. Sprinkle a little mindfulness or self-reflection onto the moment right before you put your key into the ignition. Block out 10 minutes for movement, stillness, or both. That’s yoga too.
5. Find the pockets
You may not have 75 consecutive minutes to focus on yoga, but there’s a chance you’ve got some pockets of time when you can practice some unscheduled bonus yoga.
My desk job is 40+ hours per week at the moment. That's a lot of sitting! If you were a fly on the wall, you’d see me doing some chin tucks and stretches every few minutes. There could be a modified down dog using the back of my office chair or Talasana (Palm tree pose) on both sides thrown in at random intervals. I don’t really see this as yoga in the sense that I don’t think stretching is inherently yogic. I do, however, view body awareness as a key component of practice. Mens sana in corpore sano.
Take inventory during these small windows of time. How’s your breath? How’s your nervous system? If you’re starting to feel overwhelmed, take 3-5 rounds of square breath (sama vritti). Nobody even has to know you’re doing it.
When your coworker gets on your nerves, it can be the thing that derails your day, or it can be an opportunity to practice ahimsa (nonviolence toward yourself and others in words, deeds, and thoughts). No, you’re not denying that they’ve annoyed you. You’re saying, “I acknowledge that feeling. I’m not going to throw more ire onto the pile.” This too is part of your practice.
Your yoga lives amid the march of time
I know a lot of these tips aren't glamorous. You don’t need stretchy pants to do them. This is the small stuff that radically changes the energy in and around you, though.
If you have time to think a thought or draw a breath, you can practice yoga.